Maker of US$33 smartphone hails 'new era' for India

The maker of a new US$33 (S$41) smartphone billed as India's cheapest said on Wednesday (Aug 27) it aims to sell half a million in the next three months in what it called a "new era" for the market.

Indian Bollywood actor-director Farhan Akhtar (centre) poses with models holding the Intex phone at a launch event in Mumbai. (AFP/Indranil Mukherjee

The maker of a new US$33 (S$41) smartphone billed as India's cheapest said on Wednesday (Aug 27) it aims to sell half a million in the next three months in what it called a "new era" for the market.

Indian mobile phone maker Intex has teamed up with California-based Mozilla - the non-profit organisation behind the Firefox open-source web browser - to create a cheaper alternative to Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy.

Intex spokeswoman Joyeeta Mitra said the handset, which went on sale this week, was aimed at first-time smartphone buyers and was the cheapest yet to hit the market. "We're moving into a new era in smartphones," Mitra told AFP. "This is a user-friendly handset that can help people onto smartphones and onto the Internet. "We have big expectations that this phone will find a large market and we are expect 500,000 sales in the first three months."

The company is initially targeting the Indian market but expects to expand sales to other countries in Asia, she said.

India's smartphone market is growing rapidly. US market research firm IDC reported shipments leapt by 186 per cent to 17.59 million smartphones in the first financial quarter to June from a year earlier. IDC forecast that smartphone sales would continue to rocket in coming years, growing at an annual rate of 40 per cent for the next five years.

But price is key in India, which according to the World Bank is home to one-third of the world's poor. Three-quarters of smartphone sales in India are below US$200. The Intex offering undercuts the Smart A50S, made by Indian handset maker Karbonn which was launched in June at 2,790 rupees (US$46).

Mozilla has been teaming up in the low-cost smartphone market in the developing world with Alcatel, Huawei and LG, with a focus on Latin America.

Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1 Firefox smartphone offers some extras for Rs 2,299

Powered by a 1 GHz processor, the Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 has dual-SIM functionality with 2.5 G connectivity.

Spice on Friday showcased its Fire One Mi-FX 1 Firefox smartphone which was announced last week. Priced at Rs. 2,229, the Fire One Mi-FX 1 competes directly with the Intex Cloud FX FireFox smartphonewhich was launched on Monday at a price of Rs. 1,999. The Intex Cloud FX is the cheapest smartphone currently available in India.

Justifying the higher price of Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1, the company’s CEO Prashant Bindal said, “The smartphone comes with a better battery along with a 1.3 MP rear camera with flash and front VGA camera. We are also offering a silicon cover for free.”

The device is aimed at the masses that are looking for ward to use a cheap smartphone to make calls, messages, email, and stay connected on social media.

The 2G Dual SIM enabled handset comes with a 1 GHz processor, 2.5 G connectivity, 8.89 cm HVGA capacitive touch screen, 1.3MP primary camera and 0.3 MP front camera. It packs a 1400 mAh battery. On the storage front, it has a memory slot that can be expanded up to 4 GB. Users will need a microSD card for multimedia tasks as there almost no internal memory.

The Marketplace on this phone help users to download apps. This device also supports several Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil and Bangla and comes preloaded with Facebook, Twitter and Connect A2 instant messaging app. It is important to note that currently users will not find many popular Android apps on the Firefox marketplace.

Spice has also partnered with Aircel to give 1 GB of free data per month for three months.

Asked about Firefox’s plans to launch handsets in the mid-range segment, James Ho, senior director, Firefox Mobile Devices Group told Indianexpress.com: “Currently we are focusing on the ultra-low price smartphone market. We want to help feature phone users in India to upgrade to a smartphone. However, in the coming days, our handset partners are looking at bringing devices in every price segment in the country.”